Photo by Bill Roseberry
Brenden Springman
Brenden Springman saved his best for last this fall.
The East Alton-Wood River senior bounced back from a leg injury to make his first trip to the Class 1A state cross country meet in Peoria. He was the Oilers’ lone state representative.
“It was really awesome to run there,” Springman said. “I think it was a pretty good season besides the part of getting injured.”
Springman qualified for state after placing 16th with a time of 17 minutes, 49.52 seconds in the Class 1A Metro East Lutheran Sectional on Oct. 29 at SIUE. The week before, he helped his team finish fifth in the Freeburg Regional to qualify for sectionals.
The strong postseason performance earned Springman this year’s AdVantage News Boys’ Cross Country Runner of the Year award.
Springman began his senior year by running a personal-best time of 16:42 at the Granite City Invitational on Sept. 3. He finished 32nd in 20:08 at the Edwardsville Tiger Classic four days later.
Then he got injured and had to miss five meets.
“I started the season running pretty good, then it kind of went downhill from there,” the EA-WR senior said.
Springman returned on Oct. 4 at the Madison County meet in Granite City. He placed 10th in the small-school division after winning the championship a year ago.
“I wasn’t going to run at the Madison County meet,” Springman said. “I felt like I was letting my team down. I ran injured that day, but I still ran. It was kind of hard to go through an injury in my senior year.”
Springman also competed in the Carlinville Invitational and St. Anthony’s Bulldog Classic in Effingham.
On Oct. 22, Springman was the Oilers’ top finisher at the Freeburg Regional, placing 23rd with an 18:02. It was his third time competing in regionals.
The next week at the MELHS Sectional, Springman beat Lebanon’s Jaxsen McNeese for the seventh and final state berth, making it the second time in three years an EA-WR runner qualified for state.
“I had so many goals that I had to achieve, but I still made it to state and that was the No. 1 goal,” Springman said.
The EA-WR senior finished his high school cross country career on Nov. 5 by placing 143rd with a 17:05 at the 1A state meet.
“It was kind of upsetting to know that (my career) was over,” Springman said.
Springman competed with the EA-WR cross country team all four years. His older brothers, Jason and Justin, also ran cross country for the Oilers.
“We always had a good team, so they’re like a second family to me,” he said.
Springman said EA-WR coach Russ Colona was pretty helpful to him during his career.
“Coach has always been there for me throughout the rough times,” he said. “I’m going to miss being coached by him and I’ll miss being with the team. Running is a part of me now and I’m going to continue running after high school.”
Springman said he has high hopes for the EA-WR program.
“I think they’ll be a pretty strong team,” he said. “They have a lot of heart into the sport.”
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